Puzzles have increased in popularity with a view toward increasing the mental challenge of solving such puzzles and the manual dexterity required for the same. There have previously been devised games and puzzles in which pieces of a predetermined shape have been movable in two or even three dimensions within an exterior housing into a variety of spatial relationships with respect to each other.
Existing puzzles include the “Rubik's Cube” which while challenging is inordinately complex both in concept and physical manufacture. On the other end of the scale with respect to shifting piece puzzles, the well-known planar array of fifteen slidable squares in a four by four matrix pattern provides a challenge that is far more readily solved than when effecting solution of a position problem in a three dimensional environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,959, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, teaches a cube puzzle which includes a plurality of cubes of a uniform size that are movable within a volume of constant thickness defined within an outer housing of the same shape as the movable cubes. In the cube puzzle, the sides of the movable cubes are colored selectively so as to provide a different colored pattern for each solution of the cube puzzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 785,665, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, teaches a puzzle apparatus which includes a playing board divided into variously-colored spaces and a set of movable playing pieces arranged upon the playing-board. The number of the playing pieces is one less than the number of spaces upon the playing board. Each playing piece has a color corresponding to the color of a space upon the board. Each playing piece is provided with an opening through which the color of the space over which the playing-piece is moved will be exposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,503, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, teaches a cube puzzle in which the cubes may be rotated, as well as slid from an occupied space into an adjacent space. In this cube puzzle the cubes are slid or rotated within the container by manipulating the container itself, such as by rotating, tilting, twisting or tapping on the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,971, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, teaches a manipulative cube puzzle which includes a cube-shaped container and a plurality of cubes. The manipulative cube puzzle has at least one horizontal tier of cubes in which the cubes may be slid, rotated or tumbled at the option of the player. The cubes are marked on at least part of the faces with various colors, letters, numbers, designs or symbols in order to permit the player to arrange the cubes in combinations of varying complexity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,725, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, teaches a cube puzzle in which a container is divisible into a given number of spaces and filled with one less cube than the number which would be required to till the container. The space, which is not occupied by a cube, provides a space into which an adjacent cube may be slid, which in turn creates a space having a different location in the container. Initially, the cubes are placed either at random or jumbled. The object of the game is to manipulate the cubes to a position which will spell words, or to arrange the cubes in a numerical sequence.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,518,889, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, is an example of a two tier puzzle in which the faces of the individual cubes are printed or impressed with letters and numerals. The cubes must be arranged in such a manner that it is possible to spell certain words and make certain numerical arrangements. The invention relates to a system of form bodies for use as toy building blocks, decorative objects, in particular for display use, furniture structures, sculptural building components etc., in which each form has the shape of a polyhedron, in which polygonal side faces with each other form polyhedral outward extending protuberances and/or polyhedral inward extending recesses for assembling differently shaped bodies into spatial structures. Other potentially relevant references include U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2014/0265116, 2014/0194174 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,628,393; which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
While the prior art includes puzzles that are multi-dimensional, these puzzles are largely self-contained apparatuses and/or have simply-shaped components.